Parents' tales show danger of church

Severing family connections is a major tactic in the war against evil as it is waged by a group called the International Churches of Christ.

One Lubbock family encountered this tactic in 1992, when for six weeks their son, then a freshman at Texas Tech, was recruited through a Bible study group meeting in Murdough Hall.

''We lived in another town several hundred miles away at the time,'' said Janis Jones, who asked not to be identified by her real name because she fears retaliation.

She and her husband now live in Lubbock and are members of Broadway Church of Christ. The International Churches of Christ, formerly known as the Boston Movement, have no relationship with the mainline Church of Christ or Disciples of Christ.

When she talked to her son, ''I knew something was terribly wrong with him just by the sound of his voice on the phone. It was a low, emotional monotone with the words evenly and slowly spaced.''

The relationship between parents and son had always been ''good, normal and happy,'' she said.

She was alarmed. She came to Lubbock and checked into a motel, hoping to spend a few days with her son and find out what was wrong.

''But his 'discipler' only allowed him to see me briefly about 11:30 p.m. each night after they had their Bible study in the dorm. He was not allowed to dine out with me or otherwise socialize with me,'' she said.

''During the times he was allowed to see me, he began berating me for no good reason and preaching to me incessantly. I called my husband and told him he'd better come to Lubbock. The strange behavior continued toward both of us throughout the weekend.''

When they left on a Sunday night, she was afraid their son was suicidal and that they might not ever see him again.

''But we still couldn't be sure it wasn't just an especially intense religious conversion. We simply couldn't get a grip on the source of his troubles.''

The parents began to investigate the situation. They first planned to have their son talk with their minister, but after more research they discovered, she said, that counseling from a person unfamiliar with the details of how young people are brought into the ICOC can actually push them deeper into the group.

Once they knew what they were dealing with, the parents contacted Kyle Degge, a former member of the ICOC, who travels extensively as an exit counselor to help people come out of the group. He does not do forced interventions.

They persuaded their son to go with them to a farm near Lockney to talk to Degge. They were careful to not let his friends know where he was going because she was certain ''they would have kidnapped him.''

''We were lucky,'' she said. ''The exit counselor only cost several thousand dollars. We suffered through countless sleepless nights and endured a soul-searching nightmare the size of Mount Everest.

''I don't mean to be sarcastic,'' she said. ''We were lucky. Our son was lucky and not so lucky. He is out of the grip of a demonic cult posing as a religious group. He still has problems with self-worth and decision-making that I expect will continue for years.''

Eight years later now, her son is married and self-sufficient, ''but the young man he was before the Boston Movement's psychological rape of him doesn't exist anymore.''

Gene Charleton's son was recruited in 1995 by members of the International Churches of Christ.

''Anything I could do to spare other parents the experience, I will do,'' he said.

Charleton, a science writer for the engineering extension service at Texas A&M, said in a telephone interview from College Station that ''there's not a day it doesn't pass through my mind. The whole experience from the perspective of a parent is probably the most frightening thing that ever happened to me.

His son was a student at the University of North Texas. ''He was just in (the ICOC) for a few months,'' Charleton said.

The Charletons also set up a successful intervention session with an exit-counselor.

His son, now 23 and still a student at North Texas, no longer attends church, he said. The main effect on his son has been to instill a distrust of organized religion, Charleton said.

People misunderstand when they hear the word ''cult'' associated with the group, Charleton said. ''It brings up images of a Charlie Manson or the folks at Waco. These folks are not looking for fringe people, but the best and brightest young people they can find. They want good people, and very often they get them.''

The tactics differ from the traditional church in more than just degree, he said. ''The institutional church doesn't manipulate you into it, and if you leave, it doesn't leave you feeling that you've condemned yourself to hell.''

Some have asked, Charleton said, how the ICOC's tactics differ from such groups as the Jesuits or the Marines.

''When you put it together, combined with the psychological manipulation people talk about, couldn't you say the Marines or Jesuits are a cult? Yes, these are hierarchical and extremely controlling groups, but neither one misleads you about what you are in for.''